2 men get life for '81 rape-murder

January 28, 2009

Two men who raped a teenage girl and killed her boyfriend almost three decades ago were sentenced today to life in prison.Separate Cook County juries convicted Ivory Loyd, 54, and William Atkins, 47, in September of the 1981 murder of Elvio Mercuri, 26, and the rape of his girlfriend, then 18. Circuit Judge Bertina Lampkin spared them the death penalty, saying it was unclear who fired the fatal shot.

Both men were charged in 2003 after DNA evidence and fingerprints linked them to the crime. The two were serving prison sentences for another murder at the time.

The rape victim, now in her 40s, testified at the trial. As the two victims sat in a car outside her home on Chicago's Northwest Side, Loyd and Atkins forced their way in and pistol-whipped them. For six hours, the two drove around taking turns raping the woman while Mercuri lay unconscious. They later killed Mercuri.

Mercuri's cousin Emma told Lampkin on Wednesday that Loyd and Atkins deprived the hardworking crane operator of a chance to have his own family.

A statement from the rape victim was also read in court by her younger sister.

"I chose to take the witness stand because it was my moral duty and the only way to give justice to Elvio, may he rest in peace," she said.